Grand Theft Auto V Review Round-Up

Reviews are coming in for the latest installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, and it looks like developer Rockstar Games has done it again. With most outlets giving Grand Theft Auto V perfect, or near-perfect, scores, it looks like it was forth the five year wait since GTA IV.

Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game are amongst the highest-scored titles on Metacritic, with reviewers praising the story, presentation, and open world gameplay. Too bad we PC gamers get the shaft.

Game Front’s resident GTA expert, Ross Lincoln, is working on his review as we speak — you can’t rush genius — but in the meantime, here’s what some review outlets are saying about Grand Theft Auto V.

“I’ve been with GTA since the beginning way back in ‘97, and it feels like GTA V is the culmination of everything we love about the series: It’s big, it’s pretty, and most importantly it’s just nonstop fun.”

“With Grand Theft Auto 5, developer Rockstar North aspires to re-establish GTA as the most important video game franchise in the world, to further raise the bar, the budget, the breadth of experience of the big games.”

“All three characters, in their respective ways, feel representative of the Grand Theft Auto series as a whole, and contribute to making GTA V what it is — the ultimate culmination of Rockstar’s beloved and despised series.”

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I feel I should point out that there is a movement to get the Gamespot reviewer fired for her review of this game.

Rickshaw

On September 17, 2013 at 3:02 am

Rockstar fails with this game it complete bull jumping characters and missions locked inside itself, bull cutscenes, graphics ch’s everywhere in game, shameful of them to bring out a unfinished game, it CAN stay on the ed up consoles as far im concerned!. its crap! Saint row beats it hands down.

Marlon

On September 17, 2013 at 4:20 am

@AxΣtwin – completely unsurprising, as far as I’m concerned. Another example of a sexist female reviewer trying to disguise her own misandry by claiming it’s actually the misogyny of others that’s the problem. A game lacking a strong female lead is not in any way evidence of misogyny, especially given the fact that the leads in the game are VILLAINS. You’re not supposed to think they’re role models. Letting your personal distaste for something, or your political persuasions, blind your judgement on a game’s technical merits is unprofessional and unacceptable. And according to many of the commenters, it’s a regular trait of her reviews. It wouldn’t surprise me, since it was literally the only criticism she had of the game, yet it was enough to bring the score down to a 9/10. Bear in mind it’s an entirely subjective, ideological value and it’s quite clear that she should never have been given the responsibility of reviewing the game to begin with.

Of course, simply pointing out that the reviewer may herself be biased and somewhat prejudiced results in being called biased and prejudiced yourself by anyone who shares the same beliefs and values that she obviously holds. That’s the way people like that work. It’s also presumably how she’s managed to hold down such a prestigious post by playing the ‘male privilege’ card to prevent anyone from holding her to account for her own journalistic inadequacy. It’s a good job GameSpot hasn’t been relevant since the Gertsmann debacle or this would be a serious problem. As it is, it’s just another chance to laugh at them.

Shark Sandwich

On September 17, 2013 at 4:23 am

@rickshaw – obvious troll is obvious. You’ve spent days going on about how much better the PC is than consoles and how PC sales will beat console sales by a wide margin (with no evidence, obviously), and now you’re slating the game before you’ve had any reasonable opportunity to play it. You’re almost on par with ‘csm,’ ‘magnetite’ and ‘lol’ now.

1. Most sites gave GTA 5 a perfect score. I’ve played many games over the decades. Precious few were those which were called “perfect” and even fewer which really deserved the title. It seems HIGHLY suious to me that this game got such high scores. I sense very heavy bias towards it because of the hype and the subject material among other things. I mean just read this gem from Polygon: “re-establish GTA as the most important video game franchise in the world” Huh? I think reviewers should really slow down and double check those scores.

2. GTA games are indeed higly sexist, misogynous games. Their stories and characters are offensive, childish, digusting and outright harmful especially to younger audiences. This is a fact and pointing this out as a fault of the game is perfectly valid. These games are not satires either. As the Gamespot reviewer likely correctly points out its all played perfectly straight. Which shows also that some of the perfect score reviewers are flat out incorrect/lying by calling it a satire(making their scores invalid BTW).

A game can have superb graphics, excellent gameplay but if its story and characters are complete garbage the game already can’t be perfect. TBH I wouldn’t review any single GTA game for more than a 5/10 “mediocre” for this reason. It can have superb graphics but if the story and dialogues hurt my brain while I’m playing it it can’t be better than that. To say nothing about the fact that it alienates every female gamer in the world.

Whats even worse is that the reactions to the gamespot reviewers concerns unveil the sad truth that not only the world presented in GTA has problem with females but the real world as well.
The haters opinions drip of their OWN misogyny. Their thought process is the following: “Gaming is not for women, though if they managed to at least shut their mouth up while desecrating our hobby we could tolerate them somehow. But no! They even have the nerve to criticise it! This is an outrage! Theys should teach her a lesson by firing her!” And this mindset ladies and gentleman is exactly what prevents this age old and tiresome debate to be put to rest FINALLY!

I realize noone will probably read this because it is already almost on the second page, but I’m going to say it anyway.

@ Marlon – As opposed to what? When Editor in Chief (Big Boss, El Heffa, the big cheese, the big kahuna, Papa Smurf) Kevin Van Ord or his direct subordinate Tom McShea punish a game because they suck at video games, that’s ok? You’re saying it’s a bigger crime to bring up a rapidly expanding issue within the gaming industry than it is to not only suck at your job, but be in a position of authority, while you suck at your job?

So let me get this straight. A woman pushing her so called “femnazi ideals” on poor innocent unsuspecting souls deserves to get fired. Yet when a kid threatens to shoot up a kindergarten, that should be protected under “freedom of speech”, right? One thing I’ve seen people try to use to defend the misogyny is that GTA has always been known for it. Well, so has Duke Nukem, and yet that didn’t stop reviewers from tearing into DNF for its misogynistic themes. Point is, you can’t have it both ways. To try to argue that we CAN have it both ways is a text book example of hypocrisy.

THIS is the reason why gaming as an entertainment medium isn’t being held up to the highest standard it could be. If we want the gaming industry to be taken as seriously as the movie or music industry, then there can’t be any “off limits” issues. If a game is misogynistic in it’s themes, then the review who DOESN’T bring it up is more unprofessional than the reviewer who does.

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